Maria Catherina van der Linden-Swanenburg
Maria Catherina van der Linden-Swanenburg (9 September 1839 – 11 April 1915), better known as Maria Swanenburg, was a Dutch serial killer who murdered at least 27 people and was suspected of killing more than 90 people.
Her first victim was her mother Johanna, in 1880; not long thereafter, she poisoned her father, Clemens.
It was established with certainty that Swanenburg poisoned at least 102 people with arsenic between 1880 and 1883. Twenty-seven of her victims died, of whom 16 were her relatives. The investigation included more than 90 suspicious deaths. 45 survivors sustained chronic health issues after having ingested the poison.
Swanenburg's motive was the payout of her victims' insurance or their inheritance. She had secured most of the insurance policies herself.
Swanenburg was caught after she poisoned the Frankhuizen family in December 1883. Her trial began on 23 April 1885. Swanenburg was found guilty of having killed at least three victims, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment in a correctional facility, where she died in 1915.
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